Old Germanic mutual intelligibility

This is a rather random thought the crossed my mind... I was wondering if anyone was familiar with the degree of mutual intelligibility between the Old Germanic languages. I bought the book "Old English and its Closest Relatives" by Orrin Robinson, but there's little discussion of mutual intelligibility (unless you want to go through the readings and find cognates on your own, but as someone who is not fluent in the languages that may be, to a certain extent, a lost cause).

Old Norse
Old High German
Old Saxon
Old Frisian
Old English
Gothic
Old Low Franconian

I'm assuming there are high degrees of overlap between Old Saxon, Old English, and Old Frisian. Anyway, thanks for your input!

I believe that Old English and Old Saxon were mutually intellible according to the accounts of Anglo-Saxon missionaries to Germany, esp. northern Germany, so researching that may be a good starting point.

I have also heard of mutual intel. between Old English and Old Frankish.

If I believe correctly, Old English was already Middle English by the time we get to the Old Frisian period, but it can be assumed as such.

Old Norse probably not so, as I know Old English, and a text of Old Norse--although able to get some idea--most of the context leaves me totally baffled

hope this helps

There are 3 groups:

.....................................
Old High German
Old Saxon
Old Frisian
Old English
Old Low Franconian
........................................

Gothic

..........................................

Old Norse

............................................

The ones in the first group were probably mutually intelligible - at least in written form. Gothic not so neither Old Norse. Gothic was mutually intelligible with Gepid, Longobard and Burgund. The closest from Old Norse were Burgund and Longobard but not intelligible.

Thanks ya'll

M = Intelligibility
U = Unintelligibility


Old Norse :
M: Gothic
U: rest


Old High German
M: Old Saxon, Gothic
U: rest

Old Saxon
M: Old English, Gothic, Old Dutch (=Old Low Franconian)
U: rest

Old Frisian
M: Old Dutch, Old English
U: rest

Old English
M: Old Dutch, Old Frisian, Old Saxon
U: rest

Gothic
M: Old Dutch, Old Saxon, Old Norse
U:rest

Hi Skippy,

I have that book, too -- it's a good one. I don't know, but I think Gothic and Old Norse may have had problems understanding each other. I have heard that Old Norse and Old English (and of course Old Frisian and Old Dutch) were accustomed to quite a bit of mutual intelligibility. Alboin, your analysis sounds solid, but I wonder if Old Norse and the Western Germanic group had at least some mutual intelligibility back then... Any thoughts?

Thanks for an interesting topic, Skippy.

I once read a book that said Old English and Old Norse could converse on a basic level. Main-gist words would be understood between both; only inflectional endings would hamper complete understanding. Same for Old Saxon,Old Frisian with Old Norse, where trade could still occur in each one's own respective tongue.

Here is an example of a simple sentence an Englishman or a Norseman would use to one another (speaking in their own language) if either wanted to say: "I will sell you the horse that pulls my cart"

Old English:
Ic sello þē þæt hors þæt mīnne wægn drægð
--(lit. I [will] sell thee the horse that my wain draw'th)

Old Norse:
Ek mun selja ðēr hrossit er dregr vagn mīne
--(lit. I mean-to [i.e. "will"] sell thee horse-the that drags cart my)

basically, the words are the same: only the inflections and grammar diverge. It is believed by experts that this is the major force that simplified English grammar as we see it today: in order to communicate, both sides had to drop their inflections.

Note also how modern English follows the syntactical pattern set by Old Norse rather than with Old English, which was more like Modern German (verb final in dependent clause)

I would assume that Anglo-Saxons and Vikings (Danes) would be able to communicate with each other inside the Danelaw and across the border. The relationship between England and Scandinavia was very close during the viking age. There were often Norse kings of England (King Knut) for example.
Old Norse was able to influence the development of English at a much more intimate level than French due to its mutual intelligibility with Anglo-Saxon.
It's probable that when William the Conquerer invaded England the south spoke Anglo-Saxon, the north spoke Norse and the midlands spoke something in between. I read a quote from a Middle English writer who said that the Northern and Southern English found it difficult to understand each other while the people in the middle could understand both the Northerners and Southerners. (Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the writer or the source).